Problem Child Reflects Problem Parents

In the case of a child, let’s look at this scripture for a moment. This is dramatic. Mark chapter 9, verses 22 and 23. The father of the epileptic boy has come to Jesus. Verse 21, Jesus said,

“How long is it ago since this came unto him?”

And he said,

“Of a child.”

That’s significant because I’ve discovered that most serious cases of demon problems arise in childhood, and sometimes it’s necessary to find out when they started in order to bring healing and deliverance, but we don’t go into the details here.

The father said,

“Ofttimes it [the demon] hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: But if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.”

Notice, “If thou canst do any thing.” And notice the immediate answer of Jesus,

“If ‘thou’ canst believe, all things ‘are’ possible to him that believeth.”

What was he asked to believe for? His own deliverance? No. The deliverance of his son. And here’s a scriptural principle that we don’t have time to establish in this study: parents are obligated to have faith for their children. I can take you right through scripture and show you this from beginning to end of scripture. God said to Noah,

“Thee have I found righteous before me: come thou and all thy house.”

And right on through scripture. It’s the privilege and it’s the responsibility of parents, not merely to educate their children, not merely to feed them and clothe them, not merely to train them in spiritual things, but the supreme responsibility is to exercise faith for them.

And as far as I’m able to find in scripture, Jesus never ministered to a child unless at least one parent exercised faith on behalf of that child. I’ve learned this by my mistakes, because many times somebody will drag an unruly, rebellious kid forward and say, “Brother Prince, this boy has a demon. Pray for him.” And I’d start to pray, and the results are negligible. And I don’t do that now. I always say two things. Where’s the parent? The parent isn’t here? Is there anybody that accepts the responsibility of a parent for this child, not just for 5 minutes in a deliverance service, but for life?

And secondly, I’ve always found, and never yet have I found an exception, problem child, problem parent. People that come to me now, they get warned beforehand, that that’s what I’m going to say. I have never yet found it wrong. Jesus knew what he was doing. If, for instance, a child that has problems, let’s say resentment, rebellion, hatred, the parents are not there, they’re not involved, they’re not concerned, even if you could get that child delivered, if it goes back to that atmosphere, the demons will be in it again within a week. See, there’s a problem of relationships. God has made parents responsible for their children, and he does not go against his own principles.

Look at the other case in Mark 7 there, 25 through 30.

“For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: The woman was a Greek, or a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and cast ‘it’ unto the dogs.”

In other words, “Lady, you’re just a dog. You don’t have any claim.” And oh, what an answer.

“She answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.”

Oh, what an answer. Oh, how I respect that woman.

“It’s true, Lord, I’m just a dog, but I don’t need a loaf, all I need is a crumb. A crumb will get the demon out of my daughter.”

And he said unto her,

“For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.”

See, one parent can exercise faith. But without the faith of one parent, you will not find anywhere in the Gospels Jesus ministered to a child. It isn’t scriptural. It doesn’t work. God knows what he’s doing.

The ninth part, point in your outline, Matthew 8:16, Mark 1:39. We’ve done already. You need to look at these scriptures on your own, but notice Matthew 8:16 for a moment.

“When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils:”

Why when the even was come? Because it was the Sabbath, and they were religious, orthodox Jews. They were not allowed to go any distance, not carry any burdens on the Sabbath. So they waited ‘til the sun set, the Sabbath was finished, they came to him. Mark 1:39, it says,

“He preached in all their synagogues.”

The majority of the people to whom Jesus ministered were what we would call orthodox, religious Jews. And as orthodox Jews, by the law of Moses, they were forbidden either to practice idolatry, or to practice any form of magic, or sorcery, or witchcraft. Now, I have heard preachers say, “Oh, sure, you get evil spirits amongst the heathen, where they practice witchcraft and where they worship idols. But of course, in a civilized country,” and it always happens to be a civilized country where the preacher is, whether it’s America, or Denmark, or England. It’s a funny thing. The people in England can easily believe there are demons in America. They have no problem about that. Believe me, that wouldn’t surprise them. But demons in England, that’s another matter. And the people in Denmark can believe in demons in England, but not in Denmark. See? Because in Denmark, they’re so civilized.

But I want to point out to you that these people were forbidden on pain of death ever to practice idolatry or witchcraft. Furthermore, they were not criminals. They were not lunatics. They could walk the streets of Galilee. They could till their farms. They could fish the seas. They could keep their stores. They could maintain a more or less normal existence. And yet, Jesus cast demons out of them by the thousands. See what a false picture we have, that if a person needs deliverance from evil spirits, he must be either a criminal, or a lunatic, or way off, or an idol worshiper, or a person that’s practiced the worship of Satan, or something like that. This is not true. Admittedly, those people will invariably need deliverance. But there are millions and millions and millions of apparently normal, decent, respectable people who need deliverance from evil spirits. Just as there were in the days of Jesus, so there are today. Estimating how many people need deliverance is a dangerous thing, but I would say within the professing Christian church, at least as many people need deliverance from evil spirits as need healing from sickness. And that’s about 80%.